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In the making of snow angels their shallow breaths dance in an orchestrated mist above them, noses and cheeks rosy from the stinging December chill. Their hands graze in the repetitive motion, sending a comforting spark of warmth through their cold bodies.
The world silent except for their childlike laughter buried beneath the snowflakes. As the outside temperature drops, theirs heighten. A glance. A look. A shuddering breath halting their snow angel making as they awaken from an unadulterated bliss, and it's in that moment that Izuku ponders. Quietly he gazes into a fiery set of flames almost threatening in how they burn.
Izuku shudders, but not from the cold.
The flames grow less violent as Katsuki throws him a handsome smile. "What'cha looking at, nerd?" Transported back to a long time ago by a withered film playing the fragile moments of their shared childhood, he smiles back. "Nothing. Just.." Izuku stops, suddenly dizzy. Must be the cold, right?
It's then that a train of could've beens, should've beens and would've beens speeds right through that same memory of their younger days giggling in the snow, and Izuku stills. A wafting snowflake had come to rest on the tip of his nose, pulling him from wherever it is his mind had wandered of to.
"No, it's nothing." He reassured him a second time. Like the long old saying goes, let bygones be bygones. And how true that was. Especially since it's for a reason that his relationship with Katsuki has even gotten to where they are now.
He couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for his younger self, though.
Izuku lifts his gaze from where it focused on Katsuki's hands. He notices Katsuki's fidgeting in an attempt to warm them and smiles. The frozen muscles of his mouth be damned to let such a mundane sight go. "Here," he laughs and takes Katsuki's gloved hand into his own.
Katsuki, who had his eyes closed, quickly glances from their entwined hands back up at Izuku. Again, the sight of rubies warms him from head to toe. Katsuki smiles lopsidedly, ignoring the subtle squeeze Izuku forces in his hand. "You know I can feel you staring." He then sighs, eyes lidded from exhaustion. It was the first snowfall of the year, and a pretty hefty one at that. No matter the comforts of their shared apartment, the occasion was too nostalgic to pass up on.
It's not like Izuku would have minded either way. They had been lazing about on the couch in a mess of limbs, anyway. Paired with soothing caresses, and a reading Kacchan on his lap--
Wait why had they gone outside again?
It was their day off with the forecast of snow on their heels. In a matter of time, the forecast had caught up to them in a slow and contained drizzle. It wasn't long before the flecks thickened and coated the world with a white sheet of glistening snow.
So, here they are now; all warmth from hours before long gone and replaced by gentle kisses of a northern breeze. The cold had cut into their skin, Kacchan's especially. It was so pretty littered in flecks of pink. Izuku couldn't help but admire the flush as his eyes followed a trail down the slope of Katsuki's nose and then the curve of his lips.
Breath-taking.
It was a bit silly how the fluttering snowflakes falling all around them, and melting upon impact with Katsuki's skin filled him with mild jealousy. It was them who had the pleasure of Katsuki's warmth, even if it cost them their existence, while he lay here cold. Shivering. Too cold to just lay still.
Izuku exhales a fruitless attempt at warming up his lips, but it's simply not enough. "You alright?" And, oh? Had he been staring? And of course Kacchan notices. He always does.
Always did, no matter how much he'd deny it if someone asked.
Katsuki has known him too long not to catch up on the thought train steaming behind his eyes. Katsuki always knows.
A warm smile plays on Katsuki's lips, and Izuku stiffens; too entranced by the breathtaking sight before him. Then suddenly the ice coating his limbs, drain down into a puddle beneath him when Katsuki reaches forward and smooths his thumb over Izuku's scarred cheek.
A frown plays on his face as he zeroes in on the freckles lost beneath the marred veil. His thumb grazing Izuku's cheek softly until he finds a streak of green curls to play with, and suddenly it's no longer cold. Beneath that attentive gaze, Izuku feels a strange sense of longing. The attention to detail too heart crushing of a fact for him, he fights the urge to show his excitement.
Yeah, Kacchan has always been the right guy.
Besides himself, Izuku laughs, thinks it's sweet how Katsuki always seemed to grieve the loss of his starry dots more than he did himself.
"Spit it out, jackass."
Except Izuku couldn't get a word past the chatter of his teeth, so instead, he opts for putting more weight on his elbow as he slowly moves his position parallel to Katsuki's. His free hand carefully placed next to Katsuki's head as he hovers above him, Katsuki waits.
The red of his irises glittering in almost dazzling reflections of snow, Izuku finds himself transfixed at the beauty of his childhood friend, his everlasting rival, and his best friend.
All of that enhanced by one single word.
His.
If being able to hate was a curse, the promise of carrying a heart big enough to house his devoted love for the person of his dreams was his benediction.
And hate he'd never felt. Not for Katsuki. Not despite their messy past. He loved him then, and he loved him now; nothing too complicated. They vowed not to make it so. Not anymore.
With a gloved hand, Izuku gently threads through blond strands, decorating them further with a spread of powdery flakes as the substance drizzled off his gloves. Katsuki blinks up at him, eyes flicking left and right; slowly, leaving Izuku to wonder what it was that he saw.
Katsuki breathes out softly. Impatiently, he queries, "Y'gonna kiss me or what?" as his palm raised to rest in an almost too firm hold on Izuku's nape. Snow caught in the motion and slid down a path into his coat, causing Izuku to shiver. He couldn't deny that it was both from the ghastly low temperature as the notion of something pleasant offering to drive out the cold gracing his bones.
And while it was cold, gradually, Izuku had grown to feel warm. Whether it was their mingled breaths, Katsuki's hands driving through his hair, or simply the warmth between the brush of their lips, Izuku had no thought for. Just that he finally felt warm.
That was all that mattered.
It creeps from his toes all into his fingertips as he takes off his glove and cusps the side of Katsuki's frozen cheek. An almost soundless sizzle grasps his attention as Izuku opens his eyes and finds a flutter of blond lashes. A flush coats Katsuki's cheeks, and it's then that Izuku realises he's been warming them up with his quirk. Katsuki opens his eyes and breaks away, but before dragging Izuku's botton lip between his teeth. Izuku shivered for the umpteenth time that night, but for a different reason. It felt like fireworks, firecrackers, and everything at the same time at once. No, literally. Katsuki's quirk had sent a jolt through his lips.
"Sorry." He said roughly. Izuku shook his head, glanced at Katsuki's lips and dove in once more. Not able to get enough of it. Of Katsuki. He felt too good to let go.
Izuku smiles into the kiss, "Kacchan," he whispers as he guides Katsuki's head to a tilt, peers through lidded eyes, and deepens their kiss. A messy orchestra of trembling gasps as they clicked like two pieces of a puzzle, Izuku made it soft and slow. Until then it wasn't as Katsuki hummed into his mouth, wanting and desperate. Their shared heat threatening to escape them in the materialisation of condensed clouds.
Like hell if they'd let it.
Yes, it's cold, freezing even. But oh, how sweet the feeling of their lips warming them up from the inside out.
Each other. That was all they needed, anyway.
Katsuki moans brokenly as Izuku surprises him with a lick to the roof of his mouth. He needs him, too, Izuku then realizes. And he wants all of it. All of him. And where he couldn't have him in the past, Izuku needed Katsuki in the present and the future. Forever within reach. In the faraway future, in another universe perhaps? He clings to the thought that faith holds them in its favour. A promise he quietly speaks into the night when Katsuki is asleep. Because he knows it does, has done so up until now, and will continue to do so for countless days to come.
Tangled in an unspoken vow to always bring them back to one another no matter how far they're driven apart.
So Izuku kisses him. And as he warms Katsuki beneath the shield of his body, fends off the indiscriminate snowfall as explosive, yet careful hands release their grip and slide off his nape to cradle his stiffened face, Izuku feels happy.
And cold. God, was it a cold, cold December.
His heart expands inside of his chest, a little painfully, and so he forces himself away from the kiss.
Katsuki looks up at him with such tenderness it raises him up and places him on top of a bed of clouds, relishing in the grounding fact that Katsuki, though less vocal about it, never misses his chance to show how much he wants him a similar amount as he did him. To be wanted. Something he'd once never dared dream of.
It was funny how the trajectory of life changed in that way.
And how it had led them here. Bundled up in not a cloud, but a bed of snow. Together, wrapped up in the comforts of each other's limbs where Izuku wishes he could stay forever. And yet, in between fluid kisses, he doesn't ignore the growing stiffness in his movements; in his joints. His tiring muscles screaming the desire to be warmed and cradled beneath a fuzzy, electric blanket.
Snow thickens around them, falling onto heaps of the powdery, white veil covering them both. They almost couldn't feel the icy chill beneath the sensation of their flushed bodies, but a switch flipped within as, though carelessly, Katsuki shivers beneath him. And whether it was because Izuku had bitten down on his lip, he didn't know; wastes no time in pondering over it as an overbearing sense of protectiveness stuffs him to his throat.
He leans forward and rests his forehead onto Katsuki's.
Both enraptured, their laboured breaths draw the other in. And placing the softest of pecks on Katsuki's flushed cheek, Izuku whispers gently,
"Let's head inside, Kacchan."